246 AUTUMN WOODS. 



the sumach and whortleberry are chiefly red; while 

 the maples display as many colors as if they were of dif- 

 ferent species. But each individual tree shows nearly 

 the same every year, as apple-trees bear fruit of the 

 same tints from year to year. Two red maples growing 

 side by side are seldom alike, and in a group of them you 

 will see almost as many shades of color as trees. Some 

 are entirely yellow, others scarlet, some crimson, purple, 

 or orange, others variegated with several of these colors. 

 There is more uniformity in the tints of the sugar-maple. 

 I have seen long rows of this species that were only yel- 

 low and orange, though its colors generally vary from 

 orange to scarlet. Purple and crimson are confined 

 chiefly to the red maple ; I have seen in different in= 

 dividuals of this species all the hues that are ever dis- 

 played in the autumn woods. The red maples, more than 

 aU other trees combined, are the crowning glory of a 

 New England autumn. The sugar-maple, thoiigh more 

 brilliant, has a narrower range of colors. 



As early as the last week in August, we perceive the 

 tinting of a few red maples, which always exhibit the 

 earliest change. Sometimes a solitary branch is tinted, 

 while the remainder of the foliage is green, as if some- 

 thing affecting its vitality had prematurely colored it. 

 Frequently the coloring process begins at the top; the 

 purple crown of autumn is placed upon the green brow of 

 summer, and we behold the two seasons represented at 

 once in the same tree. 



The first coloration is usually seen at the veins of the 

 leaf, extending outwardly until the whole is tinted. 

 Sometimes it appears in spots, like drops of blood upon 

 the green surface ; and in this case the leaf usually re- 

 mains spotted. In the foliage of trees that assume a 

 variety of colors, yellows generally predominate in the in- 

 terior of the mass, red and purple on the outside. In the 



